Bringing setTimeout to ECMAScript

[Mark S. Miller]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 4:26 PM, Brendan Eich <brendan at mozilla.com> wrote:

> On Mar 18, 2011, at 9:25 AM, Wes Garland wrote:
>
> > Right: the barrier to setTimeout functionality is that ECMAscript does
> not define a concurrency model.
> >
> > If we can define a concurrency model, then we can build setTimeout.
>
> See my previous reply. JS with setTimeout has only pseudo-concurrency via
> time-deferred script executions or function calls. There's nothing
> concurrent in a racy sense there.
>
>
> > Two things off the top of my head to consider:
> >  - timer granularity
>
> This is an interop issue, mostly due to stupid benchmarks that degenerate
> to measuring whether the browser clamps at 10ms or 4ms. It is also now a
> standard: 4ms.
>
> Various implementors have found that setTimeout(f, 0) that calls f
> immediately "breaks the web" (or at least the New York Times site).
> Similarly, waiting an event loop turn seems to break the web. By testing,
> 4ms has been arrived at. I welcome fresher data.
>

Is this 4ms codified in spec language somewhere? I couldn't find it by
casual searching.

What about setTimeout(thunk, 0.00001) ? In other words, is the rule

    actualTimeout = max(requestedTimeout, 4)

or

    actualTimeout = requestedTimeout || 4

?



>
>
> >  - forbidding eval-like syntax
>
> What problem are you solving?
>
>
> > OTOH, if we have an event-loop system with conditionals, we might not
> need setTimeout because it would be trivial to build from primitives. But it
> might be a handy interface if ES starts to go toward the "batteries
> included" model.
>
> What do you mean by conditionals? If you mean condition variables, JS will
> never grow to include shared-mutable-state threads. That would happen not
> only over my dead body, but the rest of TC39's. We'd fight back, so watch
> out.
>

+1. Add my body to that list ;).



>
> /be
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>



-- 
    Cheers,
    --MarkM
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